Russkiy Mir

Viktor Shkurba – Creative Director, [isdgroup] Oksana Gonchar – Creative Group Head, [isdgroup] Iryna Lipavska – Art director, Illustrator, [isdgroup] Yulia Ivakina – Copywriter, [isdgroup] Svitlana Myronchuk – Account Director, [isdgroup] Yaroslava Sidorchuk – Project Team Lead, [isdgroup] Andriy Mishchenko – Creative strategist, [isdgroup] Maria Sahaidak – Head of the Strategic Communication Department, Centre for Strategic Communication

Problem Violence, civilian murders, and child deportations have followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, the majority of Germans support maintaining economic (55%) and diplomatic (61%) ties with Russia. We aimed to reveal to Germans that Russians are incompatible with the civilized world. Idea We have created a newspaper called "Russkiy Myr," which compiles authentic Russian media translated into German. It propagates the shaping of Russian society and prepares it for war with the Western world through rights contempt, disinformation, and threats to Europe. The articles mock German politicians, echo nuclear threats, and vilify the LGBTQ+ community. "General Gurulev called for Russia to strike London", "Germany is preparing to launch the biggest strike on Russia since Hitler" — these are a few of the headlines in the newspaper. The design was minimalistic, akin to authentic German media, with bright red elements emphasizing the horror of Russian crimes. Results We distributed a newspaper to political experts, initiating debate on Russian propaganda and showcasing Russia’s true agenda at an event. Here, attendees could access a newspaper or scan a QR code to view further evidence of crimes, xenophobia, and military propaganda. This event began a series of over 50 PR publications, with T-Online's review reaching over 4 million Germans.The campaign has significantly shaped the current perception of Russia and the term "Russkiy mir" among Germans. Through the use of frame methodology, we discovered that the primary associations now include imperialism and the Ukrainian genocide.